The global media industry faces an existential crisis. Big Tech platforms control distribution, monetization, and audience behavior. Traditional models are broken. Yet the industry’s participation in India’s $64.6 billion Global Capability Center ecosystem remains miniscule. This is strategic blindness.
The New Reality
India’s GCC landscape has transformed: 1,700+ companies, 2,975 centers, 1.9 million super-skilled professionals. These aren’t cost centers, they are transformation hubs. Over 50% have evolved beyond operations to drive portfolio strategy. The ER&D segment is growing 1.3x faster than overall GCC growth, powered by 120,000 AI/ML professionals across 185 dedicated centers.
India-based GCCs will become a $100 billion industry by 2030.
Media’s share: Negligible.
Why Now
The talent equation has fundamentally shifted. U.S., European and ANZ markets face chronic shortages in AI, product innovation, and full-stack content-tech capabilities. Mid and small-sized media companies ($20M to $100 mn and $100M to $500M revenue) need bespoke and customized solutions. They cannot afford overhead structures, nor can they wait for traditional transformation timelines.
The market won’t give them that luxury.
The Opportunity
While industry discourse focuses on the top 25 global media giants, the real disruption comes from the next 250 companies—studios, publishers, agencies, networks—that must evolve or become irrelevant.
For them, a Global Capability Center is not operational efficiency. It is strategic resilience. It’s about:
- AI-assisted but measured automation
- Deep content innovations, including trust and safety
- Integrated product engineering and monetization
- Rapid experimentation without legacy constraints
- Regaining control in a platform-dominated landscape
It’s worth noting that most of the top 25 players across the media value chain have already established a presence in the GCC space. However, their large-scale, fully captive models aren’t suited to the needs or realities of mid-sized media companies.
The Choice
A small and mid-sized media company doesn’t need a scaled GCC, it needs a smart, nimble version. Unlike traditional offshore models, The Media GCC operates as an integrated business extension, designed for content creation, audience engagement, product development and revenue optimization in a fragmented market.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t about cost arbitrage. It’s about talent, technology, and value arbitrage. Media companies that embrace The Media GCC model will have the agility and capabilities to compete on new terms. Those that don’t will further be squeezed as content suppliers in someone else’s ecosystem.
Transform or be transformed.
The Media GCC isn’t an operational decision, it’s a strategic declaration that you’re ready to fight for your industry’s future.
– Author is founder of The Media GCC
